ESSAY OUTLINE

 

PLANNING THE ESSAY

 

Student:  Raheem Hirji                        Achievement: Application                 Total: ___ Marks

 

 

Paragraph 1 (Introductory Paragraph)

 

Background Information:

“Covering a wide range of distinct political, economic, and cultural trends, the term “globalization” has quickly become one of the most fashionable buzzwords of contemporary political and academic debate.” This integreation of economies and societies has existed over 100 years ago with international trade and migration. However in the modern era globalization is more apparent as the free flow of products occurs worldwide with little or no trade barriers. As the interdependence among nations is on the rise and is increasingly inevitable, 

 

Controversial Question:

The risk to the nation-state as a result of globalization is being questioned and analyzed.

 

Thesis Statement:

The threat of globalization leads to the domestic loss of high income jobs, increased inequality of income distribution, and a uniform global culture eroding national sovereignty.

 

Sub-Topics: 

1) domestic loss of high income jobs

2) increased inequality of income distribution

3) a uniform global culture eroding national sovereignty

 

 

Paragraph 2 (Background Paragraph)

 

Major Idea: Concept of Globalization

 

Topic Sentence:

“People around the globe are more connected to each other than ever before. Information and money flow more quickly than ever. Goods and services produced in one part of the world are increasingly available in all parts of the world. International travel is more frequent. International communication is commonplace. This phenomenon has been titled "globalization."”



Evidence:

- Manual workers in particular are under threat as companies shift their production lines overseas to low-wage economies.

- All economic transactions—given variables such as distance, size, income levels, and language—are denser within national borders than across national borders.

- In the global economy, a lot more moves: not only technology but also capital and skilled professionals.

- The richest 20% of the world's population receives 82.7% of the total world income, the second richest 20% receives 11.7% of the world's income and the bottom 60% receives 5.6% of the world's income.

Source: -Economic Apartheid in America, p.63 The New Press (Collins & Yeskel)
             -United for a Fair Economy, http://www.ufenet.org/

 

Concluding Sentence:

Globalization is a concept that will continue to affect both negatively and positively almost every citizen in the international community. This era cannot be reversed and is here to stay, however this does not mean it is beneficial to the overall population.

 

 

 

 

Paragraph 3 (Sub-Topic 1 - Con)

 

Major Idea:  Globalization creates Jobs

 

Topic Sentence:

Globalization is helping to increase real incomes throughout the world, with new jobs being created in poorer countries as new technologies create more dynamic local economies.



Evidence:

- “In the US, employment supported by merchandise exports to countries grew to an estimated 2.9 million jobs, up more than 914,000 jobs since 1993, " says the Office of the United States Trade Representative, the President's cabinet officer for imports and exports.

- globalization creates hundreds of millions of jobs, mostly in developing countries.

“Restrictions on outsourcing may save a few jobs in the short run,” said author and NCPA Senior Fellow Bruce Bartlett, “but they will come only at the expense of better jobs in the future.”

  • Over the past 15 years, corporations report an 82 percent increase in insourced jobs compared to a 23 percent increase in outsourced jobs.
  • Manufacturing jobs have been insourced at an even faster pace than service jobs.
  • Insourced jobs pay 16.5 percent more than the average domestic job.

“Increased economic globalization has caused jobs to move to the U.S. as well as away from it,” Bartlett added. “And because of the higher, increasing productivity of American workers, the jobs that move here pay more than the ones that leave.”

Source: National Center for Policy Analysis - http://www.ncpa.org/prs/rel/2004/20040726jobs.htm

 

Concluding Sentence:

“In a fragmented world, globalization creates bonds.  In a world where too many people yearn for freedom, globalization offers hope.  In a world where totalitarianism is all too present, globalization fosters democracy.  And in a world where small businesses face ever-increasing competition, globalization creates new markets and new opportunities.”

 

 

 



Paragraph 4 (Sub-Topic 1 - Pro)

 

Major Idea: Loss of high paying jobs due to outsourcing and inability for small businesses to compete

 

Topic Sentence:

"Outsourcing" is a process in which jobs and careers, mainly in technological fields, are contracted out to countries where wages are significantly lower wages. It is this reality that doesn’t benefit the global economy. When jobs on the home front are lost, it increases unemployment and decreases the standard of living.

According to the February edition of Wired Magazine, the typical salary for an American programmer is $70,000 a year. The typical salary for a programmer in India is $8,000 a year. U.S. companies are expected to ship 200,000 jobs a year to India in the near future, in pursuit of these lower wages, and we have already lost a significant fraction of our manufacturing jobs to countries overseas.



Evidence:

- loss of high paying jobs is a reality for nations around the world, for example in the IT sector of the American economy, jobs are being outsourced to cheap labour countries. This decreases the high paying jobs and increases the working poor.

- Both Kerry and Bush admit to outsourcing as a catalyst for reduction in jobs and that cheap labour leaves the Americans jobless.

- more high paying jobs aren’t being created. For example in Canada Wal-Mart has virtually no competition because new companies can’t effectively compete.

- Eastman Kodak — the largest employer in Rochester and the central focus of the community since the company was founded by George Eastman in 1888 — announced it was shutting down an area plant and laying off the 500 employees who make single-use, sometimes called "throw-away," cameras. The work will now be done in China or Mexico

- The U.S. Department of Labor projects that the professions with the greatest expected future growth in the U.S. are cashiers, waiters and waitresses, janitors and retail clerks. These and other lower-wage service jobs are the kind that will most likely be available to workers

Sources:  http://comment.cio.com/comments/11407.html

(Raymond D Pairan Jr  The Economy)

 

http://www.forcastglobaleconomy.com/p7/article07.html

(GLOBALIZATION UTOPIA   by Chih Kwan Chen (Feb. 23, 2004))

 

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2002-12-12-manufacture_x.htm

(USA Today)

 

Concluding Sentence:

Bush’s solution to giving away jobs is for the unemployed to get re-educated and start over. The truth is that the outsourcing of our jobs to lower wage countries is an increasingly acceptable norm which leaves domestic citizens jobless.

 

 

 

 

 

Paragraph 5 (Sub-Topic 2 - Con)

 

Major Idea: The gap between the rich and the poor is disappearing

 

Topic Sentence:

Globalization helps the international community by reducing the income inequality gap and distributes that flow of capital more evenly.



Evidence:

When referring to income distribution, incomes do not tell the whole story; broader measures of welfare that take account of social conditions show that poorer countries have made progress. For example some low-income countries like Sri Lanka, have postive indicators. Social indicators are UN’s Human Development Indicators (HDI), which take education and life expectancy into account which gives a countries true standing

  The difference in life expectancy between high-income countries and middle-income countries decreased from 24.5 years in 1960 to 8.6 years in 1999, with the exception of sub-Saharan Africa. ·

  During the past half century the gap in infant mortality between developed and developing countries has been reduced by 50 percent. ·

  While much of the world still suffers from hunger, between 1961 and 1999 the average daily food supplies per person increased 24 percent globally from 2,257 calories to 2,808 calories. ·

  The increase in food availability was even more rapid in developing countries, where it increased 39 percent, from 1,932 calories to 2,684 calories.

rich countries grew at 2%, and the rest of the developing world, at - 1%. Over 3 billion people are included, for Bangladesh China, India, Brazil, and Mexico are part of this category.

Source:

The Poor Like Globalization

 David Dollar

YaleGlobal, 23 June 2003

http://www.yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=1934

 

Concluding Sentence:

Globalization has aided and fostered economic growth among the poor nations and continues to offer hope and preosperity as the poor are experiencing increased income distribution equality.

 



Paragraph 6 (Sub-Topic 2 - Pro)

 

Major Idea: The rich get richer while the poor remain poor and the gap between rich and poor countries has been widening.

 

 

Topic Sentence:

Globalization is economically beneficial to the wealthy. This generated wealth comes at the expensive of the poor nations.



Evidence:

- World Economic Outlook studies 42 countries (representing almost 90 percent of world population) for which data are available for the entire 20th century. It reaches the conclusion that output per capita has risen appreciably but that the distribution of income among countries has become more unequal than at the beginning of the century.

- Supporters of the anti-globalization movement argue that “globalization has dramatically increased inequality between and within nations” (Mazur, 2000), and in particular that it has marginalized the poor in developing countries and left behind the poorest countries.

-white-collar real hourly wages increased 13.4% while blue-collar wages decreased 14.0%.

- Half the world -- nearly three billion people -- live on less than two dollars a day.

- 51 percent of the world's 100 hundred wealthiest bodies are corporations.

- The wealthiest nation on Earth has the widest gap between rich and poor of any industrialized nation.

Source:

- Globalization and Inequality. Michael Kremer and Eric Maskin
- The Threat of Globalization -
Edward S. Herman

- The Corporate Planet, Corporate Watch, 1997

 

Concluding Sentence:

Globalization is the engine for income inequality as more people live with less and less people live with more.

 

 

Paragraph 7 (Sub-Topic 3 - Con)

 

Major Idea: benefits of a homogenized global culture

 

Topic Sentence:

A common culture leads the way to greater shared values and political unity. This means less conflict between nations because they depend on each other. This leads to reduction in wars and beneficial consumer products for global citizens. Different cultures acquire knowledge about each other’s customs and values and cultures unite through globalization rather that being homogenized.



Evidence:

- “Technology has now created the possibility and even the likelihood of a global culture. The Internet, fax machines, satellites, and cable TV are sweeping away cultural boundaries. Global entertainment companies shape the perceptions and dreams of ordinary citizens, wherever they live. This spread of values, norms, and culture tends to promote Western ideals of capitalism.”

- Culture is something that is constantly changing, thus a "global culture" is not necessarily one that is the same everywhere

- as long as growing numbers of people have the same access to all the information and products that exist, competition and innovation will be rampant - and that is nothing to fear.

- e.g. India has been opening its economy to foreign goods and services, including global satellite television, since the early nineties. Mahdav Prasad says local television and film industries have been able to retain a unique Indian style.

Source:

Towards a Global Culture

http://wso.williams.edu/~dredmond/psci227/pg4.html

 

 

Concluding Sentence:

A common global culture only unites nations and can deter military conflicts. It recognizes each nation on a global scale and together nations generate and accumulate economic prosperity and political uniformity.

 



Paragraph 8 (Sub-Topic 3 - Pro)

 

Major Idea:

 

Topic Sentence:

A uniform global culture imposes western values, beliefs and norms on the rest of world which leads to an erosion of national sovereignty. Both dejure and defacto sovereignty becomes weakened due to globalization.



Evidence:

- “Globalization is a declaration of war upon all other cultures. And in cultural wars, there is no exemption for civilians; there are no innocent bystanders.”

- Globalization leads to the dominance of brands and the power they gain to become internationally recognized no matter what nation. EG. COCA COLA

"A billion hours ago, human life appeared on earth. A billion minutes ago, Christianity emerged. A billion seconds ago, the Beatles changed music. A billion Coca-Colas ago was yesterday morning." (Robert Goizueta, the late CEO of Coca-Cola, explaining in April 1997 that one billion Cokes are sold every two days)

- the effect of culture brands leads to companies like Coca-Cola which operates in over 200 nations — more countries than the United Nations has members

- “In the age of torment and uncertainty toward one’s destiny, the Arab individual is crossing over the bridge of agony, with a fearful protective eye over his cherished values, history and heritage,” Rafik Atweh, the event coordinator, said in describing Arab attitudes toward globalization.

Globalization creates a uniform culture which imposes brands like Coke and McDonalds and erodes the way of life in many countries.

Source:

- http://www.lebanonwire.com/0209/02091104DS.asp

  (Lebanon Wire)

- The Globalist

 

Concluding Sentence:

As national cultures become infringed upon, national sovereignty and independence will no longer be prominent and everyone will have to adapt to a new way of life.

 


 

 (Conclusion)

 

 

Restate the Thesis:

The interdependence among nations places risks among the nation-state as the threat of globalization leads to the domestic loss of high income jobs, increased inequality of income distribution, and a uniform global culture eroding national sovereignty


Summary of Sub-Topics:

- outsourcing leads to the extinction of jobs

- the rich get richer while the poor remain poor

- national sovereignty is becoming a concept of the past



Positive, moral, lesson learned sentence:

“The integration of the world's economy may look as if it's gathering pace. But the trends conceal more than they reveal about the way the world's economy works - and about whose interests would be served if 'globalization' ever achieved all its ambitions.”

 

 

Working Bibliography: (Write down at least 10 sources)

 

Nye, Joseph.  Globalization Can Turn Back Terror.”  Boston Globe.

            18 November 2001

 

Charlton, Mark. and Barker, Paul. Crosscurrents: Contemporary Political Issues 4th Edition.

            Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Limited, 2002.

 

Kwiek, Marek. “The Nation-State, Globalization and the Modern Institution of the University.” A Journal of Social and Political Theory. 

December 2000: 74 - 99

 

            Drenzer, Daniel. “Globalizers of the World, Unite! The Washington Quarterly 21.

                        Winter 1998: 209-225

 

Nicholas Crafts, Globalization and Growth in the Twentieth Century, IMF Working Paper, WP/00/44             Washington DC, April 2000.

 

World Economic Outlook, International Monetary Fund, Washington D.C., May 2000

 

Kwan Chen, Chih.        “Globalization Utopia.”

Feb. 23, 2004

 

            Rossheim, John.            “Job Creation, Job Destruction and Globalization”         Monster – Featured Reports

                        October 17, 2004

 

Where have all the good manufacturing jobs gone?                    http://tucsonjwj.org/jic.htm

                        (October 17, 2004)

 

            Globalization                             http://faculty.schreiner.edu/tomwells/OH42.htm

                        (October 17, 2004)

 

The Corporate Planet, Corporate Watch, 1997

 

 Debt - The facts, Issue 312 - May 1999, New Internationalist

           

1998 Human Development Report, United Nations Development Programme

 

 1999 Human Development Report, United Nations Development Programme